lucernefandomcom-20200216-history
Fall of Viche
The Fall of Viche was a battle that took place early in the War in France . Vichy was the Capital of The Kingdom of Bretonia , and thus was the seat of the King of Bretonia. The loss here cost the Kingdom its King, as well as most of the aristocrats of the Kingdom. The chaos caused by the losses of this battle would cause the Bretonian Army to freeze in their places, which would lead to some devestating losses. Background Prelude :'' "Everyone was just standing around too frightened to move. There was an aura of death that just melded over everyone in Viche. It was as if we knew our time was numbered, we just hadn't come to terms with how quickly it was all going to unravel around us. You just wanted to shake the king in that moment and beg him to flee the city. Beg him to save as many lives as he possible could. His death meant much more then just his life, and that was what he failed to see in that moment. He failed to understand how much his death would handicap us in the exact moment in which we had one last chance to win back our homes."'' :-Harvey McCraten With the Orcs destruction of the city of Toulose, which was believed could never be taken, the nobles, and military commanders of Bretonia became horrified that the King refused to leave the ancestoral home of Viche. There was at this point a nearly constant attempt for nearly a week to make the King leave the capital but at this point he basically refused to accept the seriousness of the situation and believed that his forces would protect him. On top of this he hinted at a darker more religious view that since he was the son of God in terms of what the Bible of Bretonia stated he could not be harmed, and thus no amount of Orcs could threaten him in the capital. The Battle Harvey McCraten Charges :"As it became hopeless to make a responsible retreat, and since the armies of Bretonia were basically fighting at all fronts, it fell to me to hold off hundreds of thousands with nothing but a patchwork army of survivors of previous losses, and untrained knights." :-Harvey McCraten With the Orcs arriving all over the area, the main army of the region was led by Harvey McCraten and he was given the order to delay the Orc forces while the main Bretonian army moved forward. During this time the council was begging the King to leave Vichy, but he refused to leave, and in this decision he forced his one son, wife, and daughters to remain in the city as they would never abandon him. The Siege The city itself was not meant to be attacked which was the main reason it was so far into the French territory. This defenclessness was the main reason why so many forces were expended in attempting to halt the Orcs before they could enter the city. But with the Orcs rampaging around the area the defenders were forced to attempt to defend the city. The first attack against the city was actually repelled with heavy losses to the orcs, but in actuality this was only a small orc splinter group that had wandered away from the main host and became stuck against the defenders. When the commander saw how much it took to just defeat that small group he realized there was little hope, and attempted to once again convinse the leadership to pull back through the eastern gap that still remained open to them. Unfortunatly the blindness that the king had shown earlier was still present and he refused to accept that the city could even fall. With the hope of escape seemingly gone the last hope for the city came in the form of a raven declaring that Theodwynn and his army had arrived in the area and was going to attempt to clear the field of Orcs. Battle of Vichy Gate :"The Orcs were utterly endless in their numbers. The castle behind their army looked like an ant surrounded by a wave of bears. I knew in that moment that it was over, but thinking that didn't change the fact that I couldn't leave it to die that way." :-Theodwynn Theodwynn approached the area and as he and his commanders surveyed they saw that their army of only 20,000 was going to be of no match against the Orc army of well over two hundred thousand, but Theodwynn realized that if he didn't try then he was declaring the King a dead man. He attempted to find out if there was anyone nearbye so that he might wait and make some sort of actual battleplan, but the ravens returned with little information of anyone nearbye. With this information it was with a heavy heart that Theodwynn moved his army forward and prepared to charge through the Orcs outfront the gate in the hopes of forcing the Orcs to pull back and deal with their flanks as opposed to simply destroying the city. :'' "It was a brave moment for the Kingdom of Bretonia but it also changed nothing."'' :-Theodwynn The army of Theodwynn charged the Orc army, and the entire city held their breath as the forces of Theodwynn charged through the flank like butter. For a moment there was hope that the desperate charge might suceded but this ended when the main body of the army was hit by a counter attack from the Orc worg riders who were 60,000 strong. With the body now stuck the front of the army contined charging as if they stopped they would be massacred but the vast majority of the force was now stuck in melee with a force that outnumbered it horribly. With little hope of success now the lead echolon broke through miraculously but they left behind almost 19,000 of their number dead on the field, and had not broken the siege of the gate. Aftermath With the Battle lost the Orcs begin swarming into the area, and the defenders of Vichy steeled themselves to defend their King long enough for reinforcements to arrive that they believed had to be near. In fact with the destruction of the army of Theodwynn's army the closest army was that of Eomer Edwig, and his force was far too small to make any difference. The City Falls :"The defenders were sending a constant raven for a long time and it was with a heavy heart that we continued to respond that we were attempting to make our way through rampaging Orcs that were splintering northward and ransacking villages throughout the region. When we were told originally of the situation I knew my force wasn't capable of affecting the outcome but like Theodwynn that didn't stop us from trying to change its fate." :-Eomer Edwig With the Battle lost the Orcs begin swarming into the area, and the defenders of Vichy steeled themselves to defend their King long enough for reinforcements to arrive that they believed had to be near. In fact the closest army was that of Eomer Edwig, and his force was far too small to make any difference. So unfortunatly no reinforcements were coming and even if the city had been designed to withstand a siege it's very unlikely its garrison could have held against the unnending horde of Orcs piling in on them. Last Stand :"It was over the moment they attacked a city built to be a tribute to our power. This city was never meant to be held against any kind of real opposition, it was meant as a home for the King." :-Unknown Fighter in Viche The main thrust came from the western side of the city, and because of this the defenders placed nearly all their elite forces on this section in an attempt to hold the gate. The first few thrusts from the Orcs met with little sucess and large body counts from the accurate bow fire from the defenders. The problem continued when the Orcs just continued to throw more and more troops at the gate with a agrowing level of success as with each attack more and more of the defenders were falling prey to the attacks. It is a sad testiment that on the final attack on the gate, it was defended by less then 200 men against an orc force of upwards of 30,000. The Orcs this time simply bypassed the gate, and scaled the now basically defenseless walls. Once the ladders were up all over the wall the Orcs overran the gate, and were able to open it to the thousands waiting outside. Massacre :"When the gates went down it was like the final truth that the world we knew had ended. There was no coming back from the the fall of Viche, it had just changed everything so completely the world could never hope to be the same." :-Maltivian Eisenburg With the final gates gone, the Orcs piled into the Keep. There were a series of desperate last stands by the elite members of the Bretonian Kings gaurd, but in the end the entire castle was burned to the ground along with everyone in it. Bill Lovie would capture one of the Orcs that was involved in this final attack on the throne room, and it is from this orcs statement that everything is known about the final moments of the King of Bretonia. The Orc said that they had entered the inner throne room and found the King at the dinner table eating with his children, and wife huddled in the corner of the room holding eachother for somesort of comfort. When the Orcs burst in the King begin screaming at them that he couldn't be killed as he was the son of God, and he continued to yell this until an Orc stuck a spear through his chest. Following this the rest of the inhabitents of the room were murdered including the children and his wife. Aftermath The Fall of Viche was the most devestating event in the history of the Kingdom of Bretonia , and if the losses caused during this battle were not grave enough the entire Kingdom nearly ground to a halt with the death of the King which caused even greater losses. Category:War in France Category:Kingdom of Bretonia Category:Battle